ABC celebrates Ausmusic month with 24/7 pop-up station

Classical Now will showcase Australian classical music and musicians across the whole of November.

ABC Classic FM and the Australian Music Centre are celebrating Ausmusic Month with a 24/7 pop-up station intended to showcase the full gamut of Australian classical music. The station – dubbed Classical Now – will broadcast for all of November on ABC Extra and will present programmes of Australian compositions, performers, orchestras, choirs and ensembles.

The schedule will include recordings and interviews with contemporary musicians from ABC Classic FM’s New Waves podcast ­– including interviews with experimental violinist Jon Rose, who has been announced as the Peggy Glansville-Hicks artist-in-residence for 2017.

The schedule will also feature new and recent operas from companies such as Short Black Opera – including a brand new live recording of the first indigenous opera, Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer – Sydney Chamber Opera and Chamber Made Opera. Other highlights will include performances of works by Liza Lim, Andrew Ford, Katy Abbot Kvasnica, Rosalind Page and Erik Griswold.

Alongside these celebrations on Classical Now, ABC Classic FM will be celebrating AusMusic Month with personal Aussie picks introduced by 40 of Australia’s out-standing under-40 classical musicians. It’s also a year of birthdays. Classical Now’s programming will feature tracks from contemporary music chamber ensemble Elision, who are celebrating their 30th birthday this year, while ABC Classic FM will present landmark productions from Opera Australia – who turn 60 this year.

Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle in Melbourne opens with Das Rheingold

The 60th anniversary celebration will open with a live-broadcast of The Eighth Wonder on Saturday November 5 (you can read Limelight Editor Clive Paget’s five-star review of the production here) and will culminate with the current sell-out production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle from Melbourne beginning November 29. This year also marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Dame Joan Sutherland, which ABC Classic FM will celebrate from November 7.

The ABC’s Classical Now digital pop-up station will run throughout November